Lemon Cakes

The Eldest turned 12 last week, and it’s a custom in our family to choose what kind of cake one would like to celebrate. Of course all birthday cakes need to be reasonable. Like the recipe had better be in my Betty Crocker cookbook or forget about it, for I’m no gourmet chef.

I love Betty Crocker. My grandma gave this cookbook to me at my Wedding Shower. A most sensible gift.

Now Lemon Cakes are not in my Betty Crocker cookbook, but because I love my daughter very much and was feeling very sacrificial,* I went out of my way to look up a recipe online. I printed the first recipe that didn’t have any obscure ingredients in it. You know, like butter milk. Who has that on hand?

What I found was this, so I went at it. If you look at that recipe, however, you’ll notice that it’s ridiculous because all the measurements are in Tablespoons, which is stupid. I can’t be trusted to count out 10 Tablespoons accurately with 7 loud children running around and begging to lick a beater. But then, if you look even closer at the recipe, you’ll notice that it requires a 7-inch bundt cake pan. Who has that? Not me, so I had to double the recipe, which is actually a good thing, as it means more lemon cake to eat.

In the end though, out came my trusty and sensible Betty Crocker cookbook anyway because it has an Equivalent Measures Chart in it. Just how many cups is 20 Tablespoons of sugar? I found out that 1 cup has 16 Tablespoons, which leaves 4 Tablespoons left over for 1/4 cup. Whew, that’s a lot of math.

This child is helping me by pointing out the Equivalent Measures Chart for all my Tablespoons.

Well, after zesting and squeezing lemons, I threw it in the oven.

Someone was playing Uno while watching me zest and squeeze lemons.

When I took it out of the oven, here’s how it looked.

And then here it is inverted on the cake platter…

And after sprinkling it with powdered sugar and placing store-boughten candies on it…

Missing 10 candles.

And finally with all the candles and most of the children…

Happy Birthday!

*This was not very sacrificial of me at all. I love lemons so much that I always have them on hand. I mean, you never know when you might need a Lemon Martini.